Home • Veterinary Care • General Medicine • Anesthesia

Anesthesia

We take all anesthetic cases very seriously. At Plaza Pet Clinic we utilize the safest, multi-modal approach that is individually created for each dog or cat. It includes injectable medications for sedation and pain management as well as gas anesthetic agents. The combination of pre-anesthetic assessment of your pet (including blood work), use of modern anesthetic agents, and the latest anesthetic monitoring equipment means that anesthesia is generally considered to be a very low risk for your pet.

When we place your dog or cat safely under general anesthesia, a breathing tube is inserted into the trachea (windpipe) to administer oxygen mixed with the anesthetic gas. As with people, an intravenous catheter is placed into your pet’s leg to infuse with fluids during the procedure. Once the procedure is completed and the anesthetic is turned off, oxygen will continue to be delivered to your pet until your pet wakes up and the tube is removed.

We closely monitor your pet during the procedure and the recovery process using advanced monitoring equipment. Parameters often monitored include oxygen concentration in the blood stream (pulse oximetry), electrocardiogram (EKG), core body temperature, respiratory rate, heart rate, blood pressure and carbon dioxide level. The monitoring findings allow us to perform safe anesthesia.

A multi-modal approach refers to the layered administration of small amounts of different medications to achieve the desired levels of anesthesia and pain management. We administer lower doses of each individual anesthetic, which generally equates to fewer side effects, complete pain relief and faster post-operative recovery.